A blog about Northeast energy issues, and in support of nuclear power.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

The Fourth and France

Last night I watched a fabulous fireworks display sponsored by our town: Hartford, Vermont. I happen to live across the street from Kilowatt Park, a park and playing field next to the Connecticut River and just upstream of Wilder Dam. The "Kilowatt" name comes from the presence of Wilder Dam, and the park is there because it is a federally-mandated low-use area (no permanent buildings) near the dam. There's a soccer field, hiking trails, picnic benches. And once a year, the town sponsors a fireworks display with rockets shot above the river. Which is just about as safe as pyrotechnics can be.

After it grew dark, the local bands stopped playing and a solitary man stepped up to the microphone. He began singing The Star Spangled Banner. As he sang rockets red glare...whoosh. The first rocket shot up in the sky, and thousands of glowing sparks fell. We had perfect weather, and this was a glorious display. (Hey Tad, if you are reading this: Wow, you did a great job!)

Well, yeah, the French government helped us because the "Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend" but the bottom line is...they helped us. Most of the French soldiers in America were volunteers, inspired by ideals of democracy and freedom. I can't get a firm count on this, but there were at least 12,000 French ground troops on our side, as I read various Internet articles. We'd still be singing God Save the Queen if it weren't for the French.

Aside: The second verse of God Save the Queen is just plain ridiculous IMHO. "Frustrate their knavish tricks." That's a prayer? That's part of a national anthem? No disrespect to Great Britain or Canada or anybody. But have you ever thought about dropping that second verse? End Aside.

We were helped by the French way back when, and we still have a lot to learn from the French.

1 comment:

For the record "God save the Queen" has status as an anthem in Canada is that of a royal salute on the same level as the U.S. salute "Hail to the Chief." "Oh Canada" is our national anthem.

And on that note I wish you all a happy Independence day. I can tell you I miss the days when we used to take the shot drive to the U.S. Air Fore Base near Plattsburgh for the fireworks on the Fourth. There were sometimes as many good French-Canadians there waving Stars-and-Stripes as there were Yanks.

It was no doubt the biggest firework display of the season one could see. I'd often wonder if there was any other place in the world where the citizens of one country made a point of celebrating the national day of another country, and were made as welcome doing so.